Hepatitis C Support Group

Hepatitis C is a blood-borne viral disease which can cause liver inflammation, fibrosis, cirrhosis and liver cancer. The hepatitis C virus (HCV) is spread by blood-to-blood contact with an infected person's blood. Many people with HCV infection have no symptoms and are unaware of the need to seek treatment. Hepatitis C infects an estimated 150-200 million people worldwide.

Update- I think shes gonna blow

Since then I have been to two more doctors and an emergency room where I was turned down for an Abdominal tap. I was given a week supply of antibiotics and sent on my way. Antibiotics, there goes my ability to digest even the small amount of food that will fit in my stomach.

I was sent to a wound care center because the surgery that was performed 10 months ago when my stomach ruptured, has still not fully healed and I end up with recurring staph infections. The wound care doctor tells me that until my ascites is relieved my wound will never heal. She is not allowed to order a tap, it has to be a surgeon.

The fluid leaks out of the wound everyday and I suppose this is the only reason my stomach has not ruptured again.

My mother and myself were both relieved to here this wound care specialist tell us that she had performed many abdominal taps and she could tell just by thumping my tummy and doing the wave test that I had massive ascites.

She recomended me to a GI doctor that I had been to before. The GI doctor had her assistant tell me she would not be able to help me or even see me.

It appears the doctors in this town are circling their wagons.

It occured to me that if someone did remove the fluid it would indicate that my surgeon was wrong (as he was last year) when he tells me to go home, there is no fluid. It would prove the diagnostic tools used to verify the fluid are flawed and it would tell the general public that the medicine practiced in this town is sub-standard or worse. Well we can't have that can we? Even if someone like myself is left in a life threatning position.

Here what I have learned: The main hospital in Colorado Springs has not turned a profit in quite some time. The head administrator for the hospital stepped down last year and it was discovered that he gave $250,000 of the hospital's operating capital to a friend for severance package and another $250,000 to a golf tournament for advertisment. meanwhile, if the hospital does not turn a profit soon it will have to ask the city goverment for a cash bailout. The government here has been so badly mis-managed that they have to close their offices on friday due to lack of funds. Major government services are being cut in order to meet the budget. I don't think they have the funds to bail out the hospital.
This leaves us with a large incentive to generate revenue and that just might explain the $280,000 generated by my needless hernia operations. (oh yes, I have copies of the bills sent to my (our) insurance company) No wonder the rates are skyrocketing.

Today, as I sit here with a temperature of 102.5, trying to draw a breath into my fluid packed rib cage. Nausea, lack of appetite, coughing and wheezing, my mind clouding up from lack of sleep and nutrition. I read that allowing this condition to go untreated is a good way to develop spontaneous peritonitis or blood born Staph infection. Either one a death sentence for someone with a compromised immune system.

I've made peace with my contracting Hep C. I was in the wrong hospital at the wrong time and received tainted blood from doctors that did not know any better.
There was no test back in the early eighties.
To die from an infection that is caused, or at least a byproduct, of ascites is crushing.

T know that a simple procedure could eliminate this awful risk. To come to the conclusion, that the only logical explanation for withholding this treatment is: " I'm more profitable with a hernia operation then a simple abdominal tap".
I was told by my surgeon last year that I almost died several times on the operating table. I am not nearly as strong now as I was then. With that in mind I have instructed my Mom to make one final entry here at DS, should my stomach tear open and I'm forced back into the operating room for what might be the end of the line.

I would like to thank everyone for the hugs and help. I'd like to thank Deb. for typing this for me.

Mark

At this point Mark is asleep. Poor guy has been awake for two days, coughing up blood and trying to catch a breath. If anyone has any advice or knows a doctor that we could speak with and get some insight on this scary situation, please let us know.
Thanks
Deb

Oh my God! That post ripped my heart out!!! Have you tried the Mayo Clinic?? That is always ones last resort. If the hospital says they can't fix him, then ask for a referral to the mayo clinic ( so insurance will pay). You need a referral probably for insurance to cover it. I am currently trying to get my sons neurologist to give me a referral to the mayo clinic. Please tell Mark we love him and are praying really hard for him. Love and Respect, Cathie

I got free everything at a teaching hospital.
If you haven't made much money last year. I had to sign over my business to my partner. I've had mris, g.i procedures everything, they got me, free medicine, eye exams, pulmonary exams. I praise God and this hospital.
I just got on line. Looked for hep c specialist, liver transplants (which they will do) and wrote them. they told me to drive out.
I'll pray for you, Now. God bless,

Chris, I'm frankly amazed at the continued postings regarding another person's battle with Hep C, cirrhosis, and ascites, complicated by low platelets.

What's obvious to me is just how close to death ascites can put you. Alias Panda Baby died from the same thing just earlier this year, and she was younger than Mark by a year, so basically same age.

Debbie was told Mark didn't have much of a chance by the doctors. He is a fighter, though, and he pulled through, and he will pull through this time too, I hope and pray.

&quot;Paracentesis is a procedure to remove fluid that has accumulated in the abdominal cavity (peritoneal fluid), a condition called ascites.&quot; If your platelets are low, you can bleed to death during this procedure. From what we've been told, Mark lost so much blood he went unconscious for awhile.

You and anyone else this applies to are reading into things and making a lot of assumptions. I'm not.

Mark just recently moved to Florida and it's probably just a coincidence that Marla lives close by. Or maybe he knew where she lived and decided to move there to be close to her. Who knows? Who cares?

When a person is in intensive care only the family can visit. Not only that, tell me Chris, how many LAST NAMES of people here do YOU know? She couldn't visit without knowing his last name. LOL And when a person is unconscious and come to, they generally have some amnesia. Some have permanent memory loss.

So how about it? How about giving Mark what YOU want: the BENEFIT of the DOUBT. That's what I'm doing. I give it to you too, although, frankly, you arouse my suspicions. LOL NUDGE!!!

It's healthy not to believe things just because someone says them. It's healthy to remain open and wait and see on things that you cannot prove one way or another. But tell me, Chris, how healthy is it to infer that someone whose life is quite possibly in jeopardy a liar and a fraud?

Do you really want to be the kid in the playground who kicks the person who just broke his leg and says, &quot;Oh, come on, I know you're just trying to get attention, so stop it already and get up!&quot;

Here's a read on what it's like to have ascites. This is from Panda's journal.

I did just have another paracentesis. I ordered a lift chair today. I am excited to get that. It will be nice when my belly swells and it is hard to get out of my recliner. Just push a button. I have been remaining pretty stable so far. That is the best I can ask for with end stage liver disease. Maybe I will stay healthier than I thought originally now that I have stopped drinking alcohol beverages. I can not stress enough how those with hep c should not drink alcohol. I dont see how they need a few so bad they do it at all. I also do pretty well with my diet for cirrhosis.

This was written in December, she passed over in March.

Oh, and people who die, they don't remove their profiles, they can't, they are dead. Maybe what happens is that DS removes them after so much inactivity. There are probably a lot of ghosts here.

hey chris... an eye for an eye doesnt really work. it just makes you look like a jerk. both you and rifleman end up sounding like schoolchildren pointing fingers and saying &quot;well, he started it!&quot;

Yeah well that is your opinion BcShan, and many others have a different one( and to me that is all that matters)! Many people have sent me messages telling me about how wrong it was for Mark to leave last year with a lot of people thinking he was dead! To me that reminds me more of somebody as you described!
And remarks like you are making, will lead others to form an opinion of you!

Chris, you're confusing me with someone else, I never said I didn't hear from Mark for 9 months. He left here as Mark32160 and came back in a week as MarkusO.

This is all very sad and disappointing. Seven Deadly Needs is a great book, Chris, have you read it?

Chris, listen to bcshan. A lot of people here are really sick and living in a lot of fear. The Tx heightens that, the disease heightens that, fear of dying heightens it. You just started treatment and already you're becoming irrational and your typing is evident of emotional turmoil. Take it to the Dump, ok?

Mark let those who were his friends know that he was ok. He also posted the same avatar on his new profile, for those who paid attention.

And I think we all need to accept that we are going to see people die here. And we are going to see people think they are dying and then recover. We would benefit from remembering that.

Be well! I watched a movie recently where this old guy's wife had died, and he had diabetes, so he was trying to kill himself with donuts so he could be with her. The thing that really touched me was how he described her death. Even at the last moment, she was joking about it all. She didn't let it change her basic nature. I thought that was something to emulate.

So am I, Rifleman. When things like this happen, people react in different ways. I might have been the one trying to tell people they were being duped on another occasion. I'm sorry that it confused so many people when Mark closed his old account and came back with a new one. And I'm sorry that I didn't ask you for more information as to why you were thinking that. It took awhile before I realized just why you thought that, when a simple question might have made it clearer sooner.

Hep C seems to cause a lot of fear and anger, or who knows? Maybe the fear and anger cause the disease to explode in the body. I don't think contracting Hep C was caused by fear, but I could be wrong. I don't know everything. I was scared shitless when I was infected.

I try to keep an open mind. I'm sorry for arguing with you about this, Chris. I took you way too seriously, made your opinions way too important. It was my own fear of death and seeing you calling Mark a phony that got me going. I hope no one does that to me when my time comes.

I thought about that, during this upset, and wondered how many people would jump for joy if I died. I wouldn't wish that kind of karma for anyone.

When I first came here, I was against Tx. I irritated a few people and they wanted me to leave. I learned that each person needs to decide what they are going to do and it isn't up to any of us to try to change their mind. Tx is the choice for some and Alternative is the choice for others, and that's OK.

So I'd just like to put it out there, that I support each of you in your choices regarding treatment! I wish each of you perfect health, happiness, good relationships, abundance and sunshiny days. And to those that were upset by me, I apologize, I was wrong. I hope you can forgive me and that we can live in harmony.

I was hospitalized with ascites due to cirrhosis in 2003. They said I was just a couple of weeks from pneumonia. It was treatable with diuretics in a pill form. I was negative for HepC. I quit drinking for over a year and a half, until I suspected my ex was cheating. Then I guess i started back up because I was in denial.
Fast forward to 2007 and I was hospitalized with a broken hip from a fall on the mountain. They told me they almost lost me to excessive bleeding. Then, even with the orange wrist band that said No Tylenol, they put me on percocet, which was 1300 mg of Tylenol a day. The ascites returned with a vengeance. That time took IV diuretics.
Next time I'll probably have to have the peritonitis drain as well.
So at what time do I become a fraud for not dieing, from pneumonia, excessive bleeding during surgery the first or next time, in your eyes? Let it go, you are just making yourself look bitter and vindictive. Your a Tennesian, for Christ's sake!!! Have some pride, and let's go to Texas and fight the Mexicans...

A friend sent this to me..As far as I can see, grief will never truly end.It may become softer overtime, more gentleand some days will feel sharp.But grief will last as long as Love does - ForeverIt's simply the way the absence of your loved onemanifests in your heart. A deep longing accompaniedby the deepest Love some days. The heavy fog mayreturn and the next day, it may recede.Once again, it's...

theatre and I are there already. I'm having a very berry tea with crackers, cheese and cherry tomatoes and she's having a joint with some beer and we're both on really comfy recliners on thick pile carpet. we need some help with the decor if anyone is around??

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